Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Today is the feast of Pentecost, the day Christians traditionally celebrate as the birth of the church, i.e., the community that seeks to embody and continue the transforming mission of Jesus. Leadership is essential for such a community. Yet what type of leadership are we talking about? Theologian Paul Collins addresses this question in his 2000 book Upon This Rock: The Popes and Their Changing Role. Following is an excerpt that examines the New Testament model of leadership.

There is a profound sense in which the New Testament presents Peter as the fundamental paradigm for later popes. Through his personality and experience, the New Testament spells out unequivocally the model of leadership that is appropriate for the Christian community.

In Matthew's gospel Jesus contrasts the exercise of secular power with the kind of authority that must be found in the church. The church is a unique institution and the way it operates must reflect this. In the Christian understanding the co-relative of authority and power is humble service: "But Jesus called [the disciples] to him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'" [Matthew 20:25-28]

Here Jesus presents a stark contrast between the secular exercise of tyrannical power through force and the Christian emphasis on slave-like service. Jesus models this himself when he washes his disciples' feet at the last supper (John 13:3-11). It is ironic that, once again, it is Peter who, in his embarrassment, misunderstands Jesus' action, and protests, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus responds bluntly: "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me."

In Matthew's gospel Jesus also stresses that leadership is not about the perks and symbols of office. He specifically accused the religious leaders of his day of making "their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher and you are all students. And call no one your father . . . Nor are you to be called instructors . . . The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted." [Matthew 23:5-12]

Here the emphasis is on the contrast between the attitude and titles adopted by the religious establishment who have rejected Matthew's community of Christians as "heretics," and the humility required of the leaders of the community by the teaching of Jesus. The clear implication here is that some Christians are already abrogating to themselves titles such as "rabbi," "father" and "instructor" that are totally alien to the followers of Christ. It is texts like these that the strong sense of equality operative in the early Christian communities emerges: titles and distinctions of rank were anathema and there was a willingness to act against them. In this context the person who led the church was both disciple and servant.

. . . [I]t is . . . clear that even in New Testament times Christians did not achieve their own ideals, and that power, politics, clericalism and manipulation were part of church life. The attainment of humility will always be a struggle. This is precisely why Matthew emphasizes the failures of Peter as the primal leader of the New Testament church.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Given that I was in Australia for the last week of April and the first week of May (see here, here and here), I was resigned to the fact that I would miss this year's parade. This was particularly disappointing as I'd missed last year's parade due to the filming of Catholics for Marriage Equality MN's series of "video vignettes." Yet due to weather conditions, this year's parade was postponed to May 13, the Sunday after I returned to Minnesota!

Left: With my friends Brian and Tim on the morning of Sunday, May 13, 2012.

I appreciate and enjoy the Mayday Parade as I always find it an inspiring and hope-filled event. Indeed, in many ways I see it as a spiritual event. For instance, the parade always tells a story, one that depicts a journey from unknowing, chaos and destruction to integration, community and enlightenment. Spirituality, at its heart, is about transformation. And so journeys like this and their creative retelling are very much expressions of spirituality; are very much living, interactive sacred texts.

About this year's parade theme the MayDay Festival guidebook notes:

This year we celebrate the local and international groundswell of people turning away from entanglement with exploitive systems towards healthy communities with sustainable visions of the future. There is no one right way to do this – transition involves difficult and honest discussions, inner soulful wrestling, outward action, many ideas and many hands, and ultimately, the unleashing of much joy and abiding love.

This "unleashing of much joy and abiding love" was evident on the streets of South Minneapolis on May 13. I'm so glad I had the chance to witness it – and to document it in the photos that accompany this post. As in previous years, I spent time before the parade began at its staging area, capturing some wonderful images of people – young and old – as they prepared to be part of what's become a world-famous event.

Why puppets and masks? An excerpt from this year's MayDay Festival guide explains:

Puppetry's power lies in the act of transformation – of bringing something inanimate to life. This act in itself speaks to our lives, which rise and fall and rise again. As we share this act of building and performing, we find that art brings people together. It creates and expands community.

Following are images of the parade, accompanied by excerpts from the parade guide. Enjoy!

Scene 1:Consider This

Connected by the Energy Pipeline, yet isolated, ordinary people just like you, use objects and services derived from fossil fuels. . . . Running about the pipeline are energy gremlins with their wall socket faces and pronged tails, making sure that everyone stays plugged in.

The Energy Pipeline pierces the heart of Mother Earth. Our habits of energy consumption drain her resources and deplete her lifeforce, bleeding her dry. When we contribute to her suffering, we create our own suffering because we too are part of the earth.

Scene 2:Break the Spell

Our wild Deer Hearts guide us to a new dawn, urging us to break and fall awake. They divine a way to rebirth ourselves. They whirl in prayer, revolving around an open heart, just as the earth revolves around the sun. Their limbs branch out to receive the truth and love of the cosmos, yet are firmly rooted in relation to the earth. . . . The first people to wake up and to break through become Deer Spirits to purify and protect the path. They give out a new form of energy and currency, based on unconditional giving and loving.

The Earth's Heart is OURS. Enter the sleeping heart. Much of our time is spent trapped in cars, on the computer, or in a cubicle. We are tired and damaged, and we live in a world that is tired and damaged. We have passed a natural balance, and very little stands between us and destruction.

We have lost touch with our wild nature, our center of creativity, energy and life. Some ancestors believed the heart to be the center of intelligence, the universe, and the sun. We can use our hearts to bring change and follow our intuition into our wild, loving and sacred center. This heart cannot break; earth's wild heart is aware, holding all things together. Shake it! Awaken!

Chalchiutlicue, the water goddess, reigned in the Fourth Sun Era with kindness to humans. The other gods became jealous and accused Chalchiutlicue of faking her compassion. Tears flowed from the eyes of Chalchiuhlicue, causing a great flood that threatened the existence of the human race. In a genuine act of compassion, Chalchiutlicue turned humans into fish to save them. As a sign of the covenant, on the bank of the river, grew a prickly pear cactus laden with fruit, symbolizing the human heart.

Genuine compassion is the source of change and comes only with sacrifice of the ego. When a transition happens in one's innermost being, it becomes visible: a sweet, vital fruit of generosity. Transition, now.

Scene 3:Make Do

The resourceful beaver works diligently to create an environment where it and its fellow creatures are able to flourish. Because they live cooperatively, these beavers are sharing tools.

Sloths on bicycles! Sloths are extremely slow-moving beasts. They are so slow that algae grows in their fur. Our ability and desire to move quickly make it hard for us to participate in the slower, subtler things around us. The brigade of sloth cyclists is declaring: "Take your time! Make the time!"

Scene 4:Surround of Light

Four horses – White, Red, Yellow and Black – gather from the four directions – North, South, East and West – to bring the medicine of unity and the prophetic message of The Forest.

The Forest has a memory recorded in rings of ancient growth. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the largest mass execution in American history, the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato, MN, and the subsequent removal of Dakota people from the state of Minnesota. In commemoration, 38 trees reach ever up, their roots planted forever into the memory of our earth to honor the wisdom and the people that continue to grow.

The Sun calls us to move, to grow, to reach upward for what is possible. It is constant and seemingly eternal as we move in our inextricable cycles around it. Nowhere is it more revelatory than in Spring when life, long dormant, reaches upward.

On November 6, Minnesotans will be asked to vote on two proposed amendments to our state's Constitution. Both amendments are divisive and unnecessary. Minnesota has never in its history amended the Constitution to take away people's basic democratic and human rights. This is not the Minnesota we want. We already have laws that ensure the integrity of our elections and marriage should not be used to divide our communities. Changing the Constitution is too radical of a step. We need to vote NO and protect its integrity.

Stay tuned for more as our campaign to defeat these amendments ramps up. In the meantime, check out the organized opposition efforts, of which we are a part, at these websites:

Thursday, May 24, 2012

. . . Perhaps the [hierarchy of the] Catholic Church has outlived its usefulness in this world if it has sunk so low to be willing to let hungry people starve and sick people die as a way to throw a temper tantrum over contraception that prevents unwanted pregnancies and therefore prevents abortion. I have never seen an organization that is so willing to put others in harm’s way in order to advance their agenda. Oh wait, I have. The Tea Party. And coincidentally, I’m sure, the Tea Party also thinks we should let the poor starve and let the sick die. And what’s up with this $2.9 billion that the Church has gleefully been collecting from the government? As it turns out, that money comprised 62% of the total revenue of the Church and they paid nothing in taxes on that revenue. So not only did the Catholic Church collect almost $3 billion of taxpayer dollars, they didn’t have to pay a cent in taxes. And that taxpayer money didn’t just come from practicing American Catholics. It came from every hard working American in the nation.

Just this funding alone makes me wonder if the Catholic Church could properly operate without it. It just seems to me that the Catholic Church is whining over something that they really have no business whining about. If you’re going to take federal cash, you should accept federal laws, especially when those laws do not directly apply to you and only apply to the insurance companies that cover your employees. Not a dime of the Church’s (or the government’s) money will have to go toward covering contraception. Insurance companies are required to now offer contraception to employees of religious institutions free of charge. In other words, there is no violation of religious freedom in this case. So this isn’t really about religious liberty as much as it is about women having access to contraception. . . .

Monday, May 21, 2012

I cannot cause light. The most I can dois put myself in the path of its beam.

– Annie Dillard

I'm thinking this is the challenge for all who seek to walk the way of Jesus: to be willing embodiments of God's light, of God's spirit of compassion, clarity and justice; to be, in other words, vessels filled with transforming energy not our own, yet which we're called to channel to the world through our loving actions of body, speech and mind.

This is what I've come to believe, at least. And from what I can gather, it's what all the great spiritual traditions invite us to do. I try to live this challenge as a gay man, true to the gift of my sexuality, within the Roman Catholic faith tradition. This blog is very much a journal, a testimony, to that endeavor.

Recently I was at an event where someone asked me how I can "stay in the church." This person had recently left her parish, hurt and grief-stricken by the Catholic hierarchy's support of the "marriage amendment," the upcoming November 6 ballot initiative that will ask Minnesotans to vote on whether or not the state constitution should be amended so as to define marriage as "solely between one man and one woman." The thing is, civil marriage for same-sex couples is already banned in Minnesota. Accordingly, this amendment seems to many to be especially mean-spirited and hurtful to gay couples and families already treated as second-class citizens.

I'm grateful to be working with the many dedicated and inspiring folks who comprise C4ME-MN. Indeed, I believe that it's because I'm working on a daily basis with fellow Catholics dedicated to advocating marriage equality that I'm not discouraged and driven from the church by the actions of the hierarchy. I'm surrounded by supportive and inspiring people who keep me energized and hopeful, and who remind me that we are the church. It saddens me that there are increasing numbers of Catholics who feel so hurt and betrayed by the actions of the hierarchy, including, in many cases, of their own parish priests, that they no longer feel as if they belong. So many Catholics, I'm discovering, are feeling this way; are feeling excluded, isolated and bereft. I'm thankful that part of C4ME-MN work is organizing events and actions that bring these folks together and give them a sense of inclusion, purpose and hope.

It's certainly been an eventful and energizing spring! In fact, it can all get rather overwhelming, which is why I'm so grateful for the love and support I receive from my friends, many of whom are featured in the following photos, and the sense of renewal and hope I experience by the beauty of the natural world around my South Minneapolis home – beauty that is also highlighted in many of the following photos.

Enjoy!

Above: "Of Light and Hope," a multi-faith community worship service that took place at Mount Zion Temple, St. Paul, on Thursday, March 29, 2012, and served to connect people of faith in their efforts to defeat the 'marriage amendment.' Fr. John Brandes and I represented Catholics opposed to the amendment during the candle-lighting ritual.

Right: Standing with friends (from left) Doug, Dawn and Lynn.

Above: Catholics for marriage equality at the "Of Light and Hope" worship service. From right: Paul, Brent, Paula and Lisa. You may recall that Brent and Lisa feature in the series of "video vignettes" entitled Catholics for Marriage Equality. Also worth checking out is Lisa's April 2 Sensus Fideliumarticle about New Ways Ministry's Seventh National Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality, which she attended in March.

Left: With my friend and house-mate Tim at the March 30 Friday Lenten Fish Fry at St. Albert the Great Catholic Church in South Minneapolis.

Above: Enjoying a quiet moment and a good cup of tea! My friend Susan (left) took this photo. She always manages to make me look half-way decent!

Above: After brunch on Easter Sunday, Tim and I went for a walk along Minnehaha Creek, which is close to where we live in South Minneapolis. I took this great shot of Tim, while he took the one of me that opens this post. As you can see, the trees along the creek are quite something!

Above: Easter Sunday dinner with friends (from left) Fred, Madeline, Kim, Curtis, Liana, Mike, Noelle, Phil and John. Yes, I ate very well on Easter Sunday! So much so that one friend commented on Facebook: "I'm stuffed just looking at all the food you ate today. But I didn't have a tree-climbing adventure, either."

Right: Eddie!

Above and below: On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 11, 2012, my friend Brian and I enjoyed a walk along Minnehaha Creek.

Above: In April, my friend Ahmed debuted his drag queen persona Aaliyah at an event in Minneapolis. It was a great night!

I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, "Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective." As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words "progressive," "gay," and "Catholic" seek to describe.

Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.

On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.

Readers write . . .

"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William

"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB

"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip

"Your posts about Catholic issues are always informative and well researched, and I especially appreciate your photography and the personal posts about your own experience. I'm very glad I found your blog and that I've had the chance to get to know you."– Crystal

"Thank you for taking the time to create this fantastic blog. It is so inspiring!"– George

"I cannot claim to be an expert on Catholic blogs, but from what I've seen, The Wild Reed ranks among the very best."– Kevin

"Reading your blog leaves me with the consolation of knowing that the words Catholic, gay and progressive are not mutually exclusive.."– Patrick

"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter

"I ran across your blog the other day looking for something else. I stopped to look at it and then bookmarked it because you have written some excellent articles that I want to read. I find your writing to be insightful and interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Keep up the good work. We really, really need sane people with a voice these days."– Jane Gael